Monday, July 16 2012

A packed BARC race programme entertained a bumper crowd on a generally bright day at Oulton Park on Saturday. With a classic car show lining the infield there was plenty to see and do whilst entertaining battles provided plenty of focus on the track.

There was a commanding lights-to-flag win for championship leader Colin Wells in the Kumho BMW Championship. He had qualified on pole by a second over fellow title protagonist Richard Bacon for the first of two races, and he led from the start into Old Hall corner. It wasn't to be Bacon's race however, as spins at Knickerbrook and Cascades dropped him to an eventual ninth place. Piers Ross qualified and finished in third place despite gaining a 10 second penalty for jumping the start. "It's exciting round Oulton," commented Wells, "there's always plenty to do!"

When the bumper 31-car grid lined up for the second of their races around the Cheshire parkland circuit in beautiful sunshine Colin Wells took a win of over ten seconds from the hard-charging Ross. Bacon charged from ninth on the grid to take the final podium position, just 2.4 seconds behind Ross.

The CNC Heads Sports & Saloon Championship race was won by the MK Indy of Class C runner Danny Keenan. Poleman Ric Wood opted to start from the pitlane and had climbed to seventh overall when problems meant he had to retire. At the front, Keenan won a fight with Robert Spencer in his Stuart Taylor Locosaki by just 0.831 seconds. Class B was taken by the Caterham CSR of Peter Davies whilst Simon Allaway took class A in his Lotus Daytona Esprit V8.

John Harrison set a new lap record in the BARC Clubmans Championship (Classic Division), and won the second race in his Mallock Mk21 after Mark Charteris couldn't  start and was pushed off the grid. Charteris had prevailed in the previous encounter by little more than half a second from Harrison.

Elsewhere there were wins for Ian Pearson in the Universal Racing Services Classic FF2000 Championship, in a Van Diemen RF83. Callum Grant won the Keyline.com Classic FF1600 Championship race in his Merlyn MK20A, whilst Alex Champkin twice won in the BARC Clubmans Championship (Cup Division) double header driving a Vision V84.

Thanks to Mike Petch for providing the report and pictures.